Chewymom

Or at least the clouds and wind and hail and thunder and lightening do….

Our weather has cooperated with these last few days of the Holy Week in a most amazing way. On Friday the kids were home from school all day. We even had an extra person or two at our house. The day started out pleasant enough, but by mid-afternoon storms were approaching from the west. As the sky clouded over, I wondered what the weather must have been like a few thousand years ago as Jesus made his way to the cross. I would imagine it would have been very similar - clouding up, becoming darker and more threatening, and finally beginning to rain as Jesus was nailed to the cross and hung in front of the spectators. The very sky would have to weep at that!

Then at the moment that Jesus took his last breath, the veil in the temple ripped apart, and I imagine there would have been thunder, lightening, hail - the earth letting out a loud scream. How can this be? The God of the universe, creator of all, dying? And sure enough, here in our town in Alabama, sirens began going off, and we hid in our hallway from the tornado that was headed our way. We watched on the news as softball-sized hail fell around our town. We heard the weather man report on 90 mph winds. We saw photos of the aftermath - an enormous oak tree, one block over, split into three pieces. Another oak on top of a house in the historic downtown district. Destruction, damage, chaos. Much like a world without a savior.

Saturday came, and we all slept in. It was a cloudy, cold day. We spent much of it on the soccer field. Although Weather Bug promised us that it was in the 50s, we were huddled in our coats and under blankets begging to differ. Maybe it was the clouds plus the wind. It was just dreary and depressing. I wonder how the earth “felt” thousands of years ago, on that day after Jesus had been crucified and buried? Was it dreary, dark and cold? Did it feel without hope, with no ray of light or warmth?

And then Sunday - ahhh, Easter Sunday. I was awakened at 6:00 am–no, not by a child begging me to go downstairs and see if a large, hopping rodent had visited our house, but by rays of sunshine forcing their way around and through the slats in our blinds. The sun was bright and was demanding that I get UP, for this was about to be a glorious day! First a day of storms and hail, then a day of dreary, windy cold, and now this! HE IS RISEN! The birds were singing, the air was crisp and fresh, the grass looked greener from the rains a few days ago, and the whole earth seemed to declare his glory, saying, “The weight of sin is lifted! Wrong is made right! Death is conquered! Arise! Get out of bed!”

Truly these past three days, as it says in Psalm 19:1, “The heavens keep telling the wonders of God, and the skies declare what he has done.”

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 12th, 2009 at 3:55 pm and is filed under This and That. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.